Holland out after first decent Olympic match

Saturday 16 August 2008

The Olympic dream of coach Foppe de Haan and his men is over.

Against the reigning champions and favorites Argentina Holland resisted well and they even had good chances to clinch the game in the last ten of the 90 minutes, but in the end victory was for the Argentineans.

Angel di Maria decided the game in the last 105th minute: 2-1.

After three poor displays during the group stages, in which Holland never convinced but gained enough points to progress, little was expected of Foppe de Haan's team.

That wasn't only because of Holland's own poor play, but mainly because Argentina were the opponents.

The South-Americans weren't just the reigning Olympic champions, they also were the most impressive team of the tournament.

With Lionel Messi, Juan Roman Riquelme, Javier Mascherano and Sergio Agüero the team contains four players who are also part of Argentina's A-squad.

Holland had only one player (Ryan Babel) with top level experience.

On top two of the overage players (Roy Makaay and Kew Jaliens) were unavailable due to injury and suspension.

As was to be expected it were the Argentineans who fully dominated the opening minutes of the game.

Holland had one good chance in that phase (Emmanuelson hit the side of the net with a volley) but it seemed only a matter of time for the team of Sergio Batista to score.

The first goal came in the fourteenth minute, when Lionel Messi punished Calvin Jong-A-Pin for a very poor forward pass.

The Barcelona star intercepted the ball, rounded goal keeper Kenneth Vermeer and put his team ahead.

Holland seem hapless and unknowing what to do, but shortly after the opening goal De Haan's men found to their game and started pushing the Argentineans back.

It resulted in Bakkal's cool equalizer on the half hour.

A distant shot by Evander Sno was deflected into the feet of the PSV-player and with the South-American defenders thinking he was offside Bakkal had all the time in the world to put the ball in the back of the net.

After the break Holland and Argentina were two equal teams and towards the end Batista's team faltered as Holland finally showed why they had been crowned European Champions two consecutive times.

Ryan Babel and especially Royston Drenthe should have scored the winning goal, but failed.

Hanging by their fingernails the Argentineans made it to the final whistle, after which extra time had to decide who was to proceed.

In extra time Argentina regained their strength.

First Vermeer denied Di Maria, but in the last minute of the first half of extra time the Dutch stopper was without a chance when Lionel Messi had played yet another of his brilliant through balls.

De Haan put on Gerald Sibon, but the tall striker was unable to enforce anything in the hectic last five minutes of the game.

In the end Argentina are the deserved winners, but they came ever so close to being eliminated by a Dutch side that played their best football of the tournament.